As an entrepreneur, building a business from the ground up is not easy. To help mitigate any conflicts or problems, it is important that you have established a team that will support you every step of the way. Like every business, there will be turnover and new hires; that is just part of the game. The one thing you can control is the people coming in. Remember, having a cohesive culture within every member of your team will play a large role to your overall success. Below are six tips when looking for a new candidate.
When interviewing candidates, make sure you thoroughly analyze them personally and professionally. Prompt them to speak about their past achievements, their strengths, their weaknesses, and last but not least their goals. Afterwards, discuss the following position and see whether or not they possess the personal and professional drive that can lead your company to its goals.
Long Term Investment
The biggest downfall you can see in a company is finding large amount of turnover. As much as it can impact the company financially in retraining new employees, the damage it can have on the company’s culture can be problematic. When interviewing a candidate, especially for a startup, discuss the following risk, problems, and successes your company has had in the past, and then transition to the overall job description of the position. Once the logistics are said, try and gage on whether or not the client is not just capable of doing this job, but also willing to stay at the company for a long period of time. This can be understood from their professional experience and overall goals. Be sure to ask those overarching ‘future’ questions. This can be the different from hiring a person who will stay for just one year to a person who will stay for the next twenty years.
Passion and Enthusiasm
Finding a candidate who is passionate and enthusiastic about what they do will make all the difference in the overall work culture. People who come in with a positive attitude are often found to be more committed to the company and provide much to the work environment. Furthermore, this is just a great characteristic to have in any field or position.
Team Player
No matter what position they are in, you want your fellow co-workers to work as a well-oiled machine. This is a cliché phrase, but it represents the collectiveness of the vision, ambition, and work ethics you are expecting your fellow workers in every aspect of the work place. This will make all the difference in every situation of the workday. Even if the job requires them to work independently, you still want them functioning as a team. Attaining that “all for one and one for all” mentality will allow a more positive and successful work experience especially when deadlines and projects become a large focus in your newly established business.
Producing Results
Like every startup, you want your business to be successful. This does not happen easily. It takes a lot of planning, time and investment on both you and your team. When you are looking for an idea candidate, you want to make sure that they can produce results. This does not simply meaning to succeed at the highest level, but the idea of putting their skills into action. There will of course be a learning curve in any new job or position. You want to make sure that this candidate not only has the abilities to learn these skills, but also putting those skills into action to be successful.
Ambition
Every business wants to hire motivated and driven professionals who will go above and beyond what is asked from them. Finding ambitious employees is difficult, but key to your success. These ambitious individuals are the best hard workers you can ask for. They learn not just to be adaptable for the 9 to 5 hours, but to improve their work day-in and day-out as they make great quality work for whatever project you give them.
Responsiveness
Being a responsive candidate is more than just showing up and greeting everyone in the office good morning. Beyond these social interaction skills, you need to find someone who can be responsive to all aspects of the job. These types of workers are ones that are incredibly proactive in learning and furthering the quality of their work. Finding a candidate of this caliber will eventually give your company and your business a strong foundation for success. This can even be seen in the long run in who you can trust for specific projects or clients. When interviewing a candidate, gage some of their work experience. Ask for examples where they went above and beyond for a their company. Even go as far and ask about their leadership skills and see how they can translate that to the work that you want them to do.
